


how not to be saved

by Dovey



Series: Bittersweet Treats [8]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Gen, big bad rin, big bad sakura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21627481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dovey/pseuds/Dovey
Summary: Sakura isn't Rin, but she might as well be.
Relationships: Haruno Mebuki & Haruno Sakura, Haruno Mebuki & Nohara Rin, Haruno Sakura & Nohara Rin, One sided Nohara Rin/Hatake Kakashi, one sided nohara rin/uchiha obito
Series: Bittersweet Treats [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1000737
Comments: 28
Kudos: 651
Collections: Purrsonal Picks





	how not to be saved

She knows who she looks like- it would be hard not to. The photos are everywhere in her house, and it’s how she knows who her sensei is right away, too. 

Auntie Rin’s teammate. He’s only in one of the photos they have of Rin- he wasn’t a good friend, or a close one, and it’s the official photo they have to take as a team or else there wouldn’t be any at all. 

She knows that this is why she’s on his team. They wave their hand at an excuse towards her grades, but years getting ignored at the academy even when top in studies had long since taught her that shinobi valued knowledge far less than innate skills. Maybe her face qualifies as one. Auntie’s eyes, auntie’s smile, auntie’s nose. She makes her mother cry when she laughs. 

They hope that she’ll keep him in check, probably like they’d hoped that Auntie would do the first time around. 

She’s not interested in that. In being a leash, in filling a role. She’s here to finish what her Auntie wanted, all those years back- why she’d become a shinobi in the first place. Maybe it’s her playing a part anyways, but at least it was one she was born for, not forced into; raised on stories of Auntie and Mother, surrounded by reminders of her, her own face less her own and more someone else’s. That’s okay. She thinks maybe there’s something wrong with her, because she’s never felt very much one way or the other. It’s better to take on the cause of someone who was whole and clever and kind, then try to find her own and do something terrible by mistake. 

She likes the way her new sensei’s face pales when he first sees her. It’s the only time he lets on that he knows who she is, and he must be very good at repressing his issues, because he treats her like shit just like the others as soon as he gets over that initial reaction. That’s okay. She’s not here for him. She didn’t really expect his help. He had never seemed very _helpful,_ in mother’s stories or the rumors around town. More spoiled, and talented enough to get away with it- like Sasuke-kun. Not so much like Naruto. 

She likes Sasuke-kun. That’s genuine, which is why she struggles so much with how much or little to express it- she’s not used to liking things, liking people. It’s not like he’ll ever like her back, so she doesn’t think it matters if she indulges in this one thing if it doesn’t take her off task. Especially since it seems to annoy Kakashi-sensei. 

\--

She gets to be as good a medic as Auntie, and then a better one. That’s a good day, and she goes to Mother’s grave, still fresh from the invasion, to let her know. Mother would be happy, so Sakura decides that she is, too. 

\--

Auntie Rin and Mother both, they’d hated the village, right from the start. Hated shinobi. The war had killed the Nohara clan, innocent travelers straying into the wrong path, and then they’d been taken and indoctrinated. Well- attempted. Hard to convince them of the goodness of the people, when they’d watched the old Hokage tear apart their father with his bare hands. How talented could these shinobi be, if they could not tell civilians apart from warriors?

Mother whispered darker things, when they learned better about how this world worked- the war took so many lives, and they always needed new ones. Rin’s chakra had shone out in the dark, a promising start, and their little caravan had been filled with children, all of whom had survived the attack. _Mistake? Perhaps not,_ she had suggested, when they laid alone in the dark, curled together, Rin sore from training and Mother sore from labor. 

They plotted, each night, and Rin grew in strength. Mother feared she would waver, when the village was so eager to reward Rin’s efforts with promotions, a Jounin instructor with acclaim, a team that seemed destined for greatness; but it seemed the opposite was the case. Rin grew more certain every day, every fight, in their convictions about this world they lived in. She had a soft spot for her teammates, it was true, but that only made her hate the village more fiercely for throwing them into danger over an idiotic war. Her anger turned bitter, turned brilliant, like a guiding light for the pair; mother would strategize, memorizing as much as she could about the infrastructure and menial, and Rin would gain the power needed to destroy it. 

Then she died. 

For the village. For the foolish team who served so poorly at her side. For Mother, to keep her safe from what might otherwise have been unleashed if she had returned to their home possessed by a beast. 

Mother grieved. Mother loved. Lost her husband too soon from sickness, or at least that’s what she said- the truth lay more in how he looked at their daughter’s empty stares and would shudder. How he spoke of trying again, as if their first one had gone wrong, when she had come about so perfectly? So even in temperament, never a trouble to Mother; so sweetly like her sister Rin in face and voice; so beautiful, in every way, as her daughter, no need for anything more. So he died young, and she did not remarry, and she loved her daughter. Her special, solemn daughter, who would curl up at night against her side and listen to her whispered plots like bedtime tales. 

Mother died in a pointless war, just like her sister, just like her parents- the fate of the Nohara, it seemed, until one of them managed to turn the tide. To kill the war instead. That was fine. Sakura would manage. It was all she had left, now. 

\--

Sakura met a goddess, and for once, when she smiled, she meant it.Auntie Rin would be so proud. A trick was offered. A slight of hand. 

The world, made into a dream, for a very short sleep. All she needed was Sakura’s help, with the reach her seal gave her, the ease with which she could slip into the chakra of others. All her training had come to fruition, but still, she did not agree. 

“I won’t make a deal like that.” She told the goddess, and ignored the frustrated twitch of anger that it earned in response. “I don’t want them to die happy. I just want them to die.” 

“Ah.” Kaguya said, slightly startled, and then shared a grin with the girl the size of her smallest finger. “That can be arranged.” 

For a second, it was like seeing Mother again. 

**Author's Note:**

> kakashi and obito be like "We will devote our lives to guilt over our teammates death, but also we literally dont know anything about her or her motivations and we will never bother to learn bc shes essentially an object to motivate our arcs and if she had personal beliefs or relationships with people besides us then it would complicate things"  
> kishimoto: women..... be healing?  
> anyways rin was like 13 and was already a healer as a genin?? so shes absolutely a prodigy with SOME kind of strong motivation and i didnt have to make her basically sasuke-but-more-hardcore but i WANTED TO.  
> uhhh this wasn't as much as i wanted it to be- i really wanted to include a whole thing about kakashi trying to sway sakura 'back' to good, finally addressing her connection to rin (is this what rin would want??) but it only further cements Sakura's belief that she's doing the right thing and that he never really knew rin because, uh, yeah, this is exactly what rin would want!  
> also yes sakura literally swooped in and stole obitos revenge plan and made it even worse for the world. thats right, kakashi, if ur doing the math: sakura is obito but cool, sasuke is rin but less hardcore, which means you, kakashi, are naruto. 
> 
> title is from Hello, My Treacherous Friends, by Ok Go: "Sitting for lunch in a square in this town, this town that I'm new to, new fellow from my new town sat me down and explained it to me: How when I spin for him I spin for myself [...] With regard to my newborn arachnid kids, there's something we must discuss:perhaps we should sit them down and explain how not to be saved."


End file.
